Newly minted Middletown High School grads urged to ‘blaze new path’

Exuberance abounds as 295 graduates urged to ‘make better tomorrow’

By Press Staff

Published 8:37 pm, Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Photo: Journal Register Co.

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Sandy Aldieri — The Middletown Press
Middletown High School's Class of 2015 graduation ceremonies were moved indoors on Tuesday June 16 - with family and friends split between the Performing Arts Center auditorium (where exercises were live streamed) and the gymnasium. less

Sandy Aldieri — The Middletown Press
Middletown High School's Class of 2015 graduation ceremonies were moved indoors on Tuesday June 16 - with family and friends split between the Performing Arts Center ... more

Photo: Journal Register Co.

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Middletown High School’s Class of 2015 graduation ceremonies were moved indoors on Tuesday June 16 — with family and friends split between the Performing Arts Center auditorium (where exercises were live streamed) and the gymnasium. less

Middletown High School’s Class of 2015 graduation ceremonies were moved indoors on Tuesday June 16 — with family and friends split between the Performing Arts Center auditorium (where exercises ... more

Photo: Sandy Aldieri — Special To The Press

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Sandy Aldieri — The Middletown Press
Middletown High School's Class of 2015 graduation ceremonies were moved indoors on Tuesday June 16 - with family and friends split between the Performing Arts Center auditorium (where exercises were live streamed) and the gymnasium. less

Sandy Aldieri — The Middletown Press
Middletown High School's Class of 2015 graduation ceremonies were moved indoors on Tuesday June 16 - with family and friends split between the Performing Arts Center ... more

Photo: Journal Register Co.

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Valedictorian, Lily Zhao, jokes with her fellow classmates during her speech at Middletown High's Class of 2015 graduation.

Valedictorian, Lily Zhao, jokes with her fellow classmates during her speech at Middletown High's Class of 2015 graduation.

Photo: Sandy Aldieri

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Class Officers, left to right, EdwardC. Ford, Jr, Ben Lanza, Chris Rodo and Tyrell Brown, help Brown prepare for his commencement speech as Class President of Middletown High's graduation on Tuesday.

Class Officers, left to right, EdwardC. Ford, Jr, Ben Lanza, Chris Rodo and Tyrell Brown, help Brown prepare for his commencement speech as Class President of Middletown High's graduation on Tuesday.

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Newly minted Middletown High School grads urged to ‘blaze new path’

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MIDDLETOWN >> While rain clouds gathered outside, prompting graduation exercises to move indoors, the halls, gym and auditorium of the high school were a spectacle of celebration and joy Tuesday evening as the 295 members of the Class of 2015 were launched into the world.

Middletown High School’s ceremonies split family and friends into two exuberant groups — one in the gymnasium for the procession and awarding of diplomas and the other enjoying a live feed of the events broadcast into the massive Performing Arts Center.

While the traditional victory lap of students, officials and a bagpipe corps around the high school track and football field was absent this year, the indoor venue made the cheering of students and family a decidedly more intimate experience.

The ladies of the class wore light blue gowns while the young men sported navy with matching caps, with many boasting gold honors sashes.

The Middletown Police Benevolent Association Pipe & Drum Band led the processional and recessional, with the senior MHS choir members sang the Nationa Anthem.

Valedictorian Lily Zhao, who will be attending Harvard University in the fall, told the class the world is “a numbers game” that she believes they can win.

“It is statistically improbable any of us will become the next President of the United States,” she added, referring to the President of the United States, to laughs all around.

“Sorry, Tyrell,” she told the class president, who had earlier predicted “the future President is in this room,” during his remarks.

Zhao then urged her fellow graduates to “make the choice to be involved in your community. Make the choice to make a better tomorrow.”

Some of the finest writers and statespeople were quoted during the evening, including William Faulkner, Nelson Mandela, J.K. Rowling, Ralph Waldo Emerson, First Lady of the United States Eleanor Roosevelt, and even Brooklyn rapper Bobby Shmurda.

Principal Colleen Weiner told the graduates she was proud to be their principal, while Superintendent of Schools Patricia Charles, who presented the 175th graduating class, challenged them not to be followers.

“Will you be a lemming? A conformist? Will you blaze a new path or will you follow the crowd?”

Not a single bullhorn punctuated the fine evening which ended in glorious tossing of hundreds upon hundreds of navy and baby blue mortar boards.